Fun Fall Festivities

These last few days things have turned seriously cold (like, middle of the winter, for real, below freezing cold), but it's still technically Fall, so I thought I'd share some of the fun we've been having lately. :)

Fall is hunting season in large part for this house full of boys. We've most recently been going after pheasants on Saturday mornings- obviously in this trip above it wasn't below freezing yet! This year Stephen got me a shotgun of my own that is a bit smaller and lighter- it's been fun honestly. I really want some cool rooster tail feathers to decorate with, but we've only come home empty handed so far.

This year Stephen and Taron tried harder than they ever have before to get Taron his first kill. Cooper got to go out with them some and obviously couldn't have been much more thrilled about it! :) Dad and Taron had general deer tags and went out twice to no avail. Then Stephen picked Taron up from school one day on his way to clean a tank in Aramo, thinking they could just look around briefly in the process...

... and, of course, that'd be the winning go. I love the look on his face in this picture. So proud of him! and Cooper's been including being thankful for the deer Taron shot in just about every prayer since... :)

Fall calls for pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting! That recipe is HERE if you should like- easiest thing ever that Lundyn shared with our family several years ago. They are Ryder's favorite... I just love pics of kiddos licking beaters :)

Went to lunch with Mom and everyone just before Halloween- Brylee and Ryder got a big kick out of the all the great decorations. I told them to try and look like the skeletons did :) 

Family fun at the U Pick Pumpkin Patch. This year they had these cool go carts and a track around the patch to ride them on. They were even big enough for adults- the boys all loved that part!

And Halloween! This year we got to trick or treat around Moore and Mackay since we were there for Stephen's Idaho Falconer's meet. It really was fun- Halloween just like I remember.

More than anything, though, this Halloween will be remembered as the Year of the Dog Bite... Stephen's dog Rocky didn't like seeing Cooper in that fur hat and all the leather fringe all over his moutain man costume! When he stepped up on the step above Stephen, he latched right into Cooper's leg- yikes! So we doctored poor Cooper's crummy dog bit on his thigh for the next two days :/ Bummer but it all worked out in the end.

And just for the fun of it I thought I'd share these simple little gifts the boys gave to their teachers at the end of their first week of school at Ucon. A Fanta pop with a striped stick of hard candy I got at Zurchers! "Thanks for helping us have a fanta.stick first week!" Kinda fun, eh? :) Here's some tags you can right click and save to print if you should have a use for a quick easy little gift too. I thought they might be good for aides and front office ladies and such for Christmas, so I whipped one up quick for that too- enjoy! :)

Candy Apple Dip Bar Halloween Celebration

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I sure love all the fun surrounding Halloween! This holiday is specifically awesome for kids, eh? Halloween celebrations are everywhere, including our own homes, in one form or another! Our kids could wear their costumes to functions about ten times even before the night of October 31, right? Sure seems like it to me! I love creating fun little celebrations for my boys at home, too, though- I know we'd all most often prefer to just make our own party instead of head out to be part of a crowd somewhere in town.

I went to Walmart and bought Hawaiian Punch, 7UP and M&Ms in this 55-piece Mars Variety pack. I used these ingredients to create a cute apple dip bar and punch floats for our Halloween celebration- I really was happy with how it all turned out! Couldn't have been easier to pull together and I was happy to know my boys were being given something at least a little healthier in the mix of the candy ;)

The very first thing I did to get our part started was to scoop vanilla ice cream into this skull ice cube tray I bought at the dollar store earlier this fall. I pressed the vanilla down inside each mold and then stuck it in the freezer to harden up. These will come back into the mix of our party prep in just a bit ;)

Simple Upcycled, No-Sew Kids Quiver

  

I recently shared this post over at The Ribbon Retreat Blog and wanted to share it with you here too!

The first things you think of when you think of the Fall season? Around our house, Fall doesn't just mean falling leaves and colder temps. It means caramel apple making. And Halloween. And, oh ya, hunting season! Being surrounded by country boys, that really should've been my first thought ;)

You've heard me talk before about how I really enjoy shooting archery with the boys. I'm excited for the years to come when our whole family is old enough that we can get into some leagues and such.

DIY Skylanders Slam Bam Costume

Now that I've shared Ryder's Tree Rex costume, I have to share Cooper's Skylanders Slam Bam DIY too! I LOVE how this one turned out and he loves it even more :) He said earlier he wanted to be a yeti. Then that he wanted to pick a Skylander. Naturally, he landed on Slam Bam- probably his very favorite Skylanders character. This guy is a four-armed armor-clad yeti- sweet! ;) We own the series one figurine, but liked the look of this series two version better for the sake of a costume, so this picture below is what I've been working from to create Cooper's costume...

  

Super Fast and Easy Puffy Pumpkins

Oh my goodness, I just love how fun these little guys turned out!

Aren't these puffy pumpkins cute, cute, cute?!

And, that's right- you can honestly make two of them in five minutes! No exaggeration. I had a small window of time to make all six of these while I was waiting to go pick up Cooper from school and couldn't believe how fast it was! Love when a project honestly turns out really good and doesn't take too much time. This would be an amazing project for a youth group or craft time with kids involved :)

Wood Creations of Idaho Falls 'BOO' and Giveaway!

I received a wood kit from Wood Creations of Idaho Falls in exchange for this post.

All opinions are 100% mine (and I LOVE this store!)

So, there you have it... I love Wood Creations! They opened an Idaho Falls store this past summer just off the corner of Lincoln and Hitt Road, not far from Majestic Auto Body. And every time I drove by, I wanted to stop in. It wasn't until the last couple of months that I finally got in and I was smitten immediately! What an awesome place! I love all the amazing creativity inside Wood Creations and am so excited such a fun store is now right here in Idaho Falls! I'm so excited to get to work with them to bring good deals and giveaways to YOU! No matter what your style of decor, Wood Creations has something that you will love in your home! I could wander around the cute store and just gawk- just look at a few of their fun Halloween kits:

Adorable Fabric PomPom Pumpkins with #myfavoritebloggers

Today I get to participate in another awesome monthly theme with #myfavoritebloggers! Because we tend to like fruits and veggies... and because, ya know, it's Fall these days... this month we're all sharing something relative to pumpkins! I love how my contribution turned out- these little pompom fabric pumpkins are so stinkin' cute!

Looks like you're in for a treat, eh?! I'm anxious to get around and check out all of their posts myself! This month there's even a few more of us playing along:

Apple Projects with #myfavoritebloggers

Sometimes I see other bloggers doing fun things together and think "that would be so fun to be involved in!" That's exactly the way it was with this awesome new theme series I get to be involved in with some of #myfavoritebloggers. I thought a monthly themed collaboration would be fun and a good way to share lots of talent with you- I'm so thrilled to be part of this one! Each month we'll each share a project relative to a particular theme.

Clearly this month is Apples!

Apple Pie on a stick

Doesn't this little beauty look, well, beautiful?!

It's an Apple Pie Caramel Apple- my very favorite!

Apples dipped in caramel alone are yummy, but these are delectable...

Wanna find out for yourself?

Start with either Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples, small to medium.

Slip your sticks into the tops and let them lie in wait...

I make caramel from scratch, using my Mom's treasured recipe-

this is the real key to making these so yummy I think :)

If you have a caramel recipe of your own, go with that.

Or unwrap bulk caramels or caramel baking bits and go with that...

Or... alright, alright: 

You can click and copy, then paste into Word for a quick recipe card!

Moving on...

give your caramel a titch to cool, then grab those waiting apples and dip away!

Let them cool completely before adding the Apple Pie goodness :)

Mix about 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon (I really only ever just eyeball these)

and set aside in a small bowl. 

Most other apple pie apples I've ever had use a mixture of just white sugar and cinnamon

for the outer coating, but the brown makes them much better, I think!

Melt one bag of white chocolate chips or half a brick of Almond Bark.

 (a two-four cup size measuring cup works great for melting in)

Dip your cool caramel apples into the white, kinda twisting as you dip.

Immediately after pulling the apples out,

start shaking your cinnamon/ brown sugar mixture over the top.

Make sure NOT to roll the apple in the mixture, instead grab fingerfuls by hand

and shake in on, twisting to cover the whole thing really well.

Set on a greased cookie sheet or cutting board to cool... then devour!

Doesn't that taste divine?? :)

 

Just thought I'd share my little FAIL in the process of making my own...

This is what happens when you overcook your caramel

but don't realize it until far too late in the game...

toffee anyone? :P

And this is what my adorable baby does while Mom works in the kitchen...

Seriosuly makes me laugh! I know I shared this little escapade of his earlier,

but wanted to include these pics too :)

Enjoy those apples!

Harvest Time

This late in the Fall, I realize that harvest is mostly over already. But I wanted to share some of the recent harvest time goodness we're enjoying around here- thanks hugely to my awesome Mom! Pears are Stephen's favorite! I serve them with broiled cheese bread for dinner just like my Mom did to us!

Sadly, I am the only one in this household that likes tomatoes... I'm still working on the little boys, though. :) Whenever I have fresh tomatoes around, I love eating tomato sandwiches- toasted homemade wheat bread with nothing but this juicy red fruit in between! Yum!

When I visited my parent's recently, my Mom had several large things of strawberries that we made into freezer jam! We haven't had jam in the freezer or a long time and I was so thrilled to have some again! I just want to hoard it and enjoy it to the last bit! We tried two different kinds- one just mashed up lightly by hand and the other pulsed a bit in the blender to be less chunky- I love this kind and will remember to do it that way next year again!

Thanks, Mom, for sharing all this yummy goodness with us and being my favorite person to create in the kitchen with!

And I sadly don't have a picture of it, but if you need an awesome way to use your zuchinni still, I love this recipe! Try it with cream cheese frosting- yum!

Die Hards

 It's October now.

But it's been 80 degrees or so still...

and we love the beach.

It's not over 'til it's over, eh? :)

Last week I took the boys to Jensen's Grove for some late afternoon fun.

I told them this would likely be the last visit of the year.

And as I watched them play,

that thought made me want to soak it all in even more.

The excited looks on their faces over swimming and digging and minnow fishing.

The beach was all but completely empty.

I wondered why actually- it really was warm enough and then some.

It occurred to me that these footprints

won't look the same next year....

Ruffle Edge Halloween Charger

Recently at a cute craft boutique in Logan, I saw a charger on display that had the saying "A Witch lives here with her little monsters" or something similar. I thought it was so cute and grabbed this shiny black charger at Hobby Lobby for $2 to make my own!

I decided I wanted it to be more fitting for our family, so I cut the saying "A Witch, A Werewolf and their Little Monsters live here." I thought it looked pretty bland with just the words at the center, so I grabbed some polka dot ribbon I had and hot glued a crumpled ruffle around the outer rim- I love the addition of the ruffles! I don't usually decorate too much for Halloween actually, but this looks so cute on the shelf inside our front landing!

I designed the words using Sure Cuts a Lot2 and have put the scut file in my 4shared folder for fellow Cricut users like me! To cut in two different colors, I just selected and then deleted the pieces I didn't want out of that color vinyl, then cut. When that cut was finished, I undid my deletes and deleted the ones I'd already cut instead. I was able to use the same transfer paper to make sure they lined up like the whole design.

To grab the free file, click here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/oQ5BRmi_/halloween_charger.html